Charlotte Potter: The Cat Burglar 3: The Louvre Heist
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: The Louvre. Paris' most famous art gallery. The dream of many thieves to rob. Charlotte Potter is no exception, except she is a witch which makes life easier. Part Three of the Saga


Disclaimer - I don't own Harry Potter, I just own collections of short stories written about criminal versions of Harry from different realities.

Feedback - feel free, but please make it constructive.

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**Charlotte Potter: The Cat Burglar.**

**The Louvre Heist.**

Charlotte smirked to herself as she flicked her wand in the direction of the Louvre front doors, shutting off the art museums security systems while at the same time unlocking the doors at the same time. She had no idea how the muggle police would take the break in since she wasn't using any tools barring her wand to break in and she was under a disillusionment charm to become in effect invisible, but she didn't care.

The muggles would most likely assume the thieves had used some high tech equipment to get through the lock rather than guessing it was done by magical means.

She didn't really give a damn, really.

Once the doors to the Louvre were unlocked, Charlotte carefully walked inside and she headed in the direction of the exhibit one of the most famous of the Louvre's pieces hung.

The Mona Lisa.

Virtually invisible, the witch walked into the room and she took a moment to admire the painting.

She quickly became bored. Art wasn't really her thing; in her mind, the only true art came from within, so street artists like the Maze Crewe and the other graffiti artists she knew in London and Manchester and Liverpool were true artists. Okay, sure, there were artists like sculptors who put their own spin on things, and there were artists who did art the way they wanted, but it bored her to death when she saw paintings that looked like photos that had just been drawn out longer. People who were given a theme, such as portraits like artists who were commissioned to do a job, they didn't really put anything into the pictures.

Charlotte had seen abstract puddles of puke with more life than this _bland _thing. Still, she had a job to do. When she had acquired her clone of Hermione Granger's Time-Turner, she had seen so many possibilities for herself over the summer. Her animagus training was one thing, but in the summer before her second year, Charlotte had watched a classic _Doctor Who _story about an alien who was trying to steal the Mona Lisa to finance time travel experiments so he could travel back in time and survive, wiping out the human race in turn.

She had never really considered breaking into art galleries during her career as a burglar since she preferred simpler and easy jobs, and at the time she had no House elves in her service.

In any case, she had no way of time travelling back even if she could see the possibilities of using something like the TARDIS to help her steal from the Louvre, or even from the Tower of London.

When she had gained Dobby, she had seen dozens of possibilities, but while it was tempting she had no idea what to do with the painting of the Mona Lisa even if she had it; she knew she wouldn't be able to move it since it would be too hot, although she knew enough about the art scene thanks to her contacts to know there were dozens of art collectors who wouldn't bat an eyelid to have something like that in their private collections.

The only problem was there were too many of them to choose from, and she didn't really want to hold an auction after collecting dozens of paintings from the Louvre, since she had worked out if she wanted to get rich quickly in the art scene, she would need dozens of high profile paintings in order to sell.

However, the _Doctor Who _story gave her another idea.

Why not simply copy the Mona Lisa and sell the forgeries for a massive profit before she gave it back to the French government to hang back here?

Okay, sure; she would be pissing off dozens of people, but who gave a toss? And besides, how would they find her if they couldn't find her, let alone know anything about her?

The idea was tempting for her, but she knew it wasn't a good move. It went against her nature to steal too much, and besides it would just paint a bullseye on her back for the police to find, and she didn't want that.

Charlotte took a deep breath before she stepped forwards, flicking her wand and shutting down any security system in the place, only momentarily giving some consideration to the how the muggles would take this before she pushed it aside, and thankful she was using her custom wand, knowing full well the French Ministry wouldn't bother her even if they picked her up. From what she had learnt about the French Ministry, they and several other magical communities throughout Europe only had a small amount of contact within the French muggle government, so magic would not be suspected. Still, to be on the safe side, she had a magical VISA and she was using her custom wand.

After gaining access to the Mona Lisa, she just reached out and took it out. Charlotte was just about to call for Dobby or Winky who had come with her to Paris when she heard the sound of muffled footsteps coming towards the room. Cursing angrily under her breath, Charlotte picked up the painting and dashed over to a quiet corner of the room and waited.

As she stood there, she considered calling for one of the House-elves. It was only a little thought, and one she killed very quickly before it took root and tempted her too much. No, she wasn't going to call them; she had started to guess she had become a bit too dependent on them and she didn't want that. She didn't want to call them to solve all of her problems, and in any case, she had no idea what would happen if she needed them at a critical moment and they couldn't help her. In any case, Charlotte had spent most of her life without House elves, and now she had the two wonderful elves in Dobby and Winky, she didn't need them to help her with every little matter which came up.

It was the same with magic in general.

Yeah, she used magic for many things, but whenever she was committing a burglary she preferred doing it the muggle way so she didn't forget her skills, or let them get rusty while her mind slowly adopted the same annoying logic as the muggle-borns who stayed in the magical world for a few years where they lost their brains and IQ points, and they began using magic for every little thing.

As she listened out, Charlotte realised there was more than one person, and she kept very very still.

When the people came into view, shining torches around the gallery in every direction, Charlotte immediately saw they were like her, robbers. She smirked when she heard them; she was eternally grateful for the translation charm she had found, otherwise, she would have had a very hard time understanding them.

"The Mona Lisa, it's gone!"

"I can see that, Jean-Luce-!"

"No names, you fools! The Mona Lisa being here isn't as big a problem as you think. Okay, I admit its a blow, but its not all bad, and I won't let its loss mean we can't still make a steal here; there are still dozens of artworks here in the Louvre, now come on."

The French burglars accepted the logic of the argument, and they went around the room preparing to break into the exhibits. When one of them shone a torch in the general vague direction Charlotte was in, the witch was long gone.

XXX

Charlotte stopped walking until she entered into another exhibit a fair distance away from the one she had just left; she wasn't worried about the muggle gang finding her in here given they had their own hands full with the exhibit. Muggle technology was good, but she knew it would take time for them to collect the paintings from there and come out this far if they even did.

After flicking her wand for safekeeping, though for a moment she regarded her wand with interest before she shook her head. She'd just had the thought of reversing her spells and setting off all the alarms in the Louvre, but she decided against it. The gang would likely be suspected as the ones who had stolen the artworks in the Louvre, so why wouldn't they be suspected as being the ones who had stolen the Mona Lisa?

Very convenient for her. They would likely be hunted down by the French cops unless of course they already had a way out. And they likely did.

Still it would give her enough time to conduct her own business.

"Dobby!" she hissed.

The House elf appeared, and she could see in the dim light he visibly perked up at the sight of her but he restrained the urge to scream in delight; Charlotte had given both him and Winky standing orders if she called for them when she was out on a heist like tonight, they were not meant to raise their voices.

"Missy Char," Dobby whispered happily.

"Take me back to the hotel, please Dobby," she instructed.

The House elf nodded happily, and with a click of his fingers took her away from the Louvre.

XXX

A couple of days later in one of the Potter properties in the muggle world which her family had used for extra cash here and there - she had been surprised that a family as old as the Potters had such dealings in the muggle world while other families like the Malfoys wouldn't even _consider _the potential profit margin, but she had gotten over it, although she was thankful she had an extra source of income which hadn't really seen much activity over the last decade or so with the loss of so much of her family thanks to Dumbledore's meddling and Voldemort's bloodthirstiness but she planned to change that in the next few years, but for now she would use the properties to hide her stolen goods until she cleared them out - Charlotte smirked as she placed the last forged copy of the Mona Lisa in the attic before lifting the large sheets over it. She'd had a busy day, using magic to copy the original Mona Lisa. She'd had to transfigure about 45 pieces of wood into canvas boards to make it easier for the spell so it wouldn't take forever to copy the original Mona Lisa.

She smirked as she thought about the general reactions she expected to get when she contacted the 44 people who would give their own _mothers _to own the Mona Lisa in their private collections. It was going to cost them a hefty sum, but it would be worth it.

In the meantime, she wanted time to make the art world sweat a little (she wasn't sure if that was the right term for what she was doing), but she had no intention of selling the Mona Lisa copies until a good few months had passed.

The forty-fifth copy was going to be hers, a trophy reminding her of a good time in France.

When she had drawn up her plan to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre over the holiday period, Charlotte had been aware of the animagus training she'd booked in already along with the heist she had planned for the Tower of London (that reminded her; she needed to return the jewels to the police before the start of September. Oh well, she could handle that little matter when she got home), on top of her cover which was her stay at the Burrow and having to put up with the annoyance of the Weasley family.

Her solution was easy. She would just go back in time again once her animagus training and the Tower heist was done, but only after she had burgled East Sussex.

Once all of those matters were settled and her timeline was synchronised, Charlotte had simply used the Time Turner again, and she had travelled back into the past, thankful she hadn't really spent much time in the windmill due to the little matters she'd needed to take care of. She had travelled back time to about the beginning of the summer, and she had simply lived out the rest of the period holidaying in France while she waited for the day she could return home.

Correction - the period of time she had already lived in, twice.

It was…._disconcerting, _to say the least, and the paradoxes of time travel were very hard for her to decipher, but she understood them well enough to know she would have time to herself without worrying about committing any more burglaries.

And that day was today.

She had studied enough of Time-Turners to know how dangerous they were, and she knew she needed to be back home in time to witness her younger self travelling back in time before holidaying truly in France and later in Marseilles while Winky had brought the Mona Lisa here, to this property, and to make sure there were spells on the place to stop anybody from breaking in.

Once she was finished, Charlotte idly checked her watch when she closed the door and locked it tight before she pocketed the key. She had another four hours to go before she, Dobby and Winky could return to the windmill. When she got back she would finally check the goblin mailbox she owned to see if there was anything there.

In the meantime, she and her House-elves had some time to themselves for a few hours, and after spending much of her time travelling back into the past, Charlotte had learnt the value of patience.

She turned and smirked as she looked at the door upstairs. Inside that room was a fortune, one that would have to wait for a few months, a year at best. In any case, she might find another forty potential buyers whom she'd deem worthy enough to warrant her attention and would pay a fortune just to own the Mona Lisa.

Too bad they wouldn't realise it was a copy until she returned the original.

She smirked wider and she turned and walked away.

XXX

Charlotte smirked as Dobby, whom she had sent ahead to watch as their younger selves left for the past in order to head for Paris, gave the signal which coincided with the time on her watch.

She walked to the front door of the windmill and unlocked it before she let herself inside. Instantly she saw Dobby and Winky hard at work at the kitchen. She rolled her eyes fondly when she saw them see her and rush towards her.

"Missy Char!" they squealed.

Charlotte bent down and hugged them briefly before she pulled back and looked at them happily. "Hi, guys! Oh, I was going to do this… but it's okay," she immediately soothed when she saw their expressions. "Dinner smells wonderful. Just try not to overdo it, okay."

The House-elves smiled back at her, although she did notice them exchange a perplexed look; she knew she often confused the House elves with her attitude, but it was unintentional, but she had spent _so long _alone with no-one to depend on, so it was hard to have two willing House elves in her midst. "Anyway, I'm gonna go and have a shower," she went on, smiling, "give me a call when dinner's ready."

"We will, Char," Dobby smiled.

Charlotte smiled back and kissed them both. "You two are such sweethearts," she whispered before she stood back up and grabbed her things and headed upstairs.

But even Charlotte was not omniscient; she had no way of knowing Dobby and Winky would certainly prove to be worthy of her trust when the Tri-wizard tournament started which would result in incredible amounts of pain.


End file.
